People often complain they’ve been ripped off and that sellers turn out to be nothing but continuous resellers.

It’d be fairly easy to, only within the classifieds, colour the name of the posters (buyers and sellers) by their number of posts in the other forums. More community contribution, more from blue towards green you go – something like that.

No idea if it makes sense, too late at night for that.

coffeeking – Member
People often complain they’ve been ripped off and that sellers turn out to be nothing but continuous resellers.

Those aren’t necessarily the same folk.

I’ve actually pointed out one particular “continuous reseller” to the mods but they seem completely disinterested. I’m guessing it’s a “clique” thing.

Well no but my thinking was that those who contribute to the chat/bike areas more frequently are less likely to be those who rip people off. Maybe a weighting system to weight chat/bike posts 25x higher than classifieds posts would mean long-term re-sellers who are reliable get good marks too.

Guess there’s a few ways it could be improved.. Are continuous sellers allowed? I know its not in the spirit of the forums in the first place but does it actually say in the rules it’s not allowed?
I usually check a sellers forum history before buying anything from them.. I think some sort of seller feedback could be easily implemented but it hasn’t seemed to happen over the years..
Other forums have post counts and member status beside every post which could also help but again, STW don’t seem to want to go down this route.
Wonder how long it will be till someone mentions “buyer beware” or “caveat empor” on this thread..
Oh, Er..

All that is needed is for people to post the result of transactions on the thread. I do. then when you come to buy off someone a quick search allows you to see the result of any previous transactions

What TJ says

I am trying to make that a habit…,

So perhaps before buying something big…
1) don’t buy from a new poster
2) look for someone who posts outside the for sale area if possible
3) perhaps look to see if the item Is also on eBay and bikeradar, and if you can find a trail of it having been purchased by the seller
4) look for signs of feedback
5). Try googling their e mail address, name, telephone number

A little bit of awareness goes a long way. People will only get ripped off because they’re blindly chasing the bargain of the century. The conmen know this and play on this. The fact that this is a little community has long gone, it’s a public forum that anyone can join.
A fool and his money are easily parted. 😉

1) what’s a “continuous reseller”?

2) there is already forum software that has a plugin that shows e.g. how many transactions a poster has done and whether there have been disputes

3) this has been canvassed a zillion times before with different proposed solutions and the STW mods have (apparently) decided that the costs outweigh the benefits of spending a zillion hours in applying a fix to the current “free fire/caveat emptor” system – which I think is fair enough – it’s their ball and they don’t have to play football if they prefer to play rugby with it.

The thing is that there’s a LOT of people who trade on here and don’t post in the other forums that are good honest traders.

The classifieds are for private sales not traders

Lets try and define what we mean by ‘private’.

The ‘spirit’ of our forum is one where users can turn their old, surplus or unwanted kit into extra cash to enable them to buy new bits to help them get out and continue riding. The Classified Forum is not a place where users can trade parts bought elsewhere and then sold at a profit. If we suspect that a user is exploiting our forum to earn additional income or solely for the purposes of making a profit then we are very likely to consider that as ‘Trade’ activity and we’ll ask you to stop. We will look at each instance reported to us or spotted by us on a case by case basis and then we will act at our discretion.

That said we do allow certain types of Trade Ads where we feel they will be of benefit to our users. Trade ads are allowed but only after following some very strict guidelines and rules. If you are in the bike industry and would like to know how you can use the classified forum to clear slow moving and old stock then get in touch with mark@singletrackworld.com.

colour the name of the posters (buyers and sellers) by their number of posts in the other forums

Can the ‘big hitters’ be coloured hot pink?

I try & do as TJ suggests. If I can remember. 😕

I wouldn’t trust anyone from here or the classifieds, not an honest chap amongst the lot of you. Anyone selling anything on singeltrack must be some sort of defective as well 😕

Wanna buy my soul Tazzy?

Is it an R soul? Pictures please,I may pay a modest sum if in good condition.

Wanna buy my soul Tazzy?

I already own that dear boy, the cloven hoofed gentleman you met at the crossroads to sign the contract for your awesome gym bod, that was me.

MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Just needs a feedback thread for each forum member, linked to in their profile – after a transaction you post in it with a link to the sale thread. If someone doesn’t have one then you take your chances. Easy.

I already own that dear boy

Arse, that was you?

I was hoping to get you to paypal gift me for it before telling you I no longer had it.

I was hoping to get you to paypal gift me for it before telling you I no longer had it.

well to be honest, I was expecting you to show me a picture of soul, just like yours in perfect condition with no signs of wear or tear and then to send me stinky flat fish from dover instead as it’s sort of the same phonetically and seems to happen on STW classifieds 😀

grum – Member

Just needs a feedback thread for each forum member, linked to in their profile – after a transaction you post in it with a link to the sale thread. If someone doesn’t have one then you take your chances. Easy.

Not needed – all thats needed is to post on the thread that you buy stuff from – then the next buyer can see how a transaction has gone using search – no need for any additions to the forum – bar perhaps a sticky or similar suggesting this

Thanks for the feedback coffeeking. 🙂

TJ’s suggestion is a good one and has worked. 8)

TJ’s suggestion is a good one and has worked.

Doesn’t it only work if you know the poster? How are we to trust someone who signs up specifically to buy something? Or someone who has mates/multiple accounts?
Ad posted, mate “buys” it and leaves positive feedback thusly building the image of a reliable seller…

I take your point but I would always look at a person’s history first of all. Have been around here a good few years, bought and sold items such as frames, forks etc occasionally and am completely honest with the description. I also offer to refund if buyer feels they’ve been misled, provided it’s not been used obviously.

There’s no way I could deal with any naming and shaming on here cos I’ve ridden with so many STW’ers!

At the end of the day, treat people as you wish to be treated yourself. 🙂

david – wouold someone really go to that much trouble to scam a few quid on here? it would only work once

I look for known names as well and use ordinary paypal not gift if its somone I don’t know

Good suggestion TJ

david – wouold someone really go to that much trouble to scam a few quid on here?

I don’t know, I thought this was how the confidence tricksters worked- by building up confidence.
A little bit here- good feedback, a little bit there- good feedback then bang! £200 worth of forks missing, £500 worth of bike, £1k+ worth of bike.
I think it’d be worth it and I think it’s something that’s done or similar (shill bidding) on Ebay.

I look for known names

Did the RealMan debacle ever get sorted? 😛